Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt review – a joyful peek under the hood

Even when we fail spectacularly at them, computer games are crafted to be a medium of delights, as an exhibition at London's Victoria & Albert Museum reveals

The Arcade Backpack is designed to infiltrate public spaces

By Lydia Nicholas

In a gallery, it is not only the quality of a piece that comes under scrutiny, but also its meaning. Gaming culture’s demand to be seen as “real art” sometimes runs alongside a resistance from many fans and creators to being subjected to the kind of analysis that art faces.

Can video games be art? Yes. Obviously yes. Video games are a medium as diverse as films or novels. Some are enormously profitable mainstream hits. Some are familiar rehashings of old tropes. Some are beautiful. Some are violent. …